Race plays part in views on weight

Black and white youths differ significantly in their perceptions of fatness and desired weight, according to an analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III.

Boys also view body weight differently than girls.

Richard S. Strauss, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, examined data including heights and weights of 1,932 youths between the ages of 12 and 16.

Strauss found that the participants' reports of whether they considered themselves overweight or not were poorly correlated with medical definitions of overweight or obesity and were strongly linked to sex and race.

Fifty-two percent of girls who believed they were too fat were of normal weight, compared to only 25 percent of boys.

White girls were much more likely to consider themselves overweight than were black girls, black boys or white boys, noted Strauss in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Strauss found that girls, especially white girls, were more than twice as likely as boys to want to weigh less, while boys of the same age tended to want to weigh more.

"There is no doubt that increasing emphasis on thinness by television, advertising and marketing campaigns has a profound effect on the desire to be thinner, especially among females," Strauss wrote.

"Most alarmingly, girls as young as 5 or 6 years old already express fear of gaining weight." Strauss also cited racial differences in perceptions of excess weight.

"In general African-American women do not perceive overweight as unhealthy or unattractive" and report "more positive feelings about their bodies and less concern about body weight than white women.

"In addition, black men and women are more accepting of larger figures," Strauss concluded.